Estate Tax Likely to Stay

The Estate tax law has been one of the more interesting aspects of the Bush tax cuts of 2001. At the time Bush wanted to repeal the Estate tax, but lacked the congressional support to do so. As a compromise the exclusion amount for Estate taxes has been raised over the decade and the tax completely goes away in 2010 before returning in 2011 with the same rules it had it 2001.

Confused?

I certainly know that Estate planning has become more difficult because no one has known for sure what will happen with the law.

President Elect Obama has come out in support of keeping the Estate Tax with an exclusion amount of $3,500,000 and a tax rate of 45%. Given the current makeup of the congress, this is likely what we'll be looking at. I'd like to see the tax repealed, but at least we know what direction things are heading in.